yknot:
If you owned a LDS, would you want to rep a gear line that sold service items to your customers?
I would be VERY interested in that, if I was permitted by that manufacturer to charge said customers for a repair training seminar, and the parts, and I could also sell the necessary tools. I think I'd stand to make a good buck off the DIY crowd... no one said doing it yourself was going to be cheaper.
Think about it... as an LDS, would you rather sell a reg and get $30 a year to service it, or sell a reg with a $200 class on how to service it, as well a few hundred dollars worth of service tools and $10 a year in parts?
It seems like a flat out no-brianer to me. You'd still have "certified technicians" working on their own regs, the shops would still service plenty of regs for the vast majority of divers who could care less how they work, and the shops and mfgrs would both make some money on the "factory certification" courses and parts.
What's the down side? I'm not seeing it... it seems like a win/win/win for the DIY divers, LDSs, and manufacturers.
The only big change would be that instead of requiring that they be serviced annually by an authorized Zeagle dealer, they'd be serviced annually by a Zeagle authorized technician, who was presumably trained by/through a dealer.